Not Taco Bell Material

Funnyman Adam Carolla is known for two things: hilarious rants about things that drive him crazy and personal stories about everything from his hardscrabble childhood to his slacker friends to the hypocrisy of Hollywood. He tackled rants in his first book, and now he tells his best stories and debuts some never-before-heard tales as well. Adam Carolla started broke and blue collar and has now been on the Hollywood scene for over 15 years. Yet he never lost his underdog demeanor.

Daddy, Stop Talking: And Other Things My Kids Want But Won't Be Getting

Adam rips parenthood a new one, telling it straight about what adults must do if they don't want to have to support their kids forever. Using his own crappy childhood as a cautionary tale, and touting the pitfalls of the kind of helicopter parenting so pervasive today, Daddy, Stop Talking is the only parenting book you should ever read.

Shrinkage: Manhood, Marriage, and the Tumor That Tried to Kill Me

At 30 years old Bryan Bishop’s life was right on track: as the sidekick on The Adam Carolla Show, his career was taking off and, newly engaged, his personal life was soaring to new heights. Then he was diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumor. Suddenly Bryan’s promising future was looking at a troubling schedule of radiation and chemotherapy. But having found refuge in comedy, "Bald Bryan" recounts his alternately heartbreaking and hysterical experience of cancer treatment and recovery.

Dear Mrs. Fitzsimmons (The Audiobook)

It's what he was raised to do. Most parents would hide or destroy any evidence so clearly demonstrating their child's failures, but-lucky for us-Greg Fitzsimmons's family has preserved each mistake in its original envelope like a trophy in a case, lest he ever forget where he came from.

The Mirror Effect

Reality TV. Celebutantes. YouTube. Sex Tapes. Gossip Blogs. Drunk Driving. Tabloids. Drug Overdoses. Is this entertainment? Why do we keep watching? What does it mean for our kids? In the last decade, the face of entertainment has changed radically - and dangerously, as addiction specialist Dr. Drew Pinsky and business and entertainment expert Dr. S. Mark Young argue in this eye-opening new book.

Too Fat to Fish

A natural storyteller with a bottomless pit of material, Lange grew up in a close-knit, working-class Italian family in Union, New Jersey, as a maniacal Yankees fan who pursued the two things his father said he was cut out for: sports and comedy. Wild, shocking, and drop-dead hilarious, Too Fat to Fish is Artie Lange giving everything he's got to give. And like a true pro, the man never disappoints.

The Coloring Book: A Comedian Solves Race Relations in America

Colin Quinn has noticed a trend during his decades on the road - that Americans' increasing political correctness and sensitivity have forced us to tiptoe around the subjects of race and ethnicity altogether. Colin wants to know: What are we all so afraid of? Every ethnic group has differences, everyone brings something different to the table, and this diversity should be celebrated, not denied. So why has acknowledging these cultural differences become so taboo?

Gumption: Relighting the Torch of Freedom with America's Gutsiest Troublemakers

The star of Parks and Recreation and author of the New York Times best seller Paddle Your Own Canoe returns with a second book that humorously highlights 21 figures from our nation's history, from her inception to present day - Nick's personal pantheon of "great Americans".

Joe says:"Buy it and listen, or buy it and don't. I recommend the former."

Food: A Love Story

Stand-up comedian and author Jim Gaffigan has made his career rhapsodizing over the most treasured dishes of the American diet ("choking on bacon is like getting murdered by your lover") and decrying the worst offenders ("kale is the early morning of foods"). Fans flocked to his New York Times best-selling book Dad Is Fat to hear him riff on fatherhood but now, in his second book, he will give them what they really crave - his thoughts on all things culinary(ish).

Crash and Burn

At a high point in his career, Artie Lange performed a sold-out show in Carnegie Hall-and he did it with a pocketful of heroin. In the midst of a deep, self-destructive depression, addicted to heroin, cocaine, and prescription drugs, he lashed out at everyone around him-from his cohosts on The Howard Stern Show to celebrity guests and even his longtime friends. Then came his legendary meltdown on-air, with 6 million people listening, after which Lange pulled himself together enough to go to a buddy's bachelor party in Amsterdam.

Happy Endings: The Tales of a Meaty-Breasted Zilch

Comedian Jim Norton is dirty...really dirty...the kind of dirty that makes The Aristocrats look like a knock-knock joke. Fortunately for him, his kind of dirty humor has earned him the distinction of being third microphone on the immensely popular Opie & Anthony syndicated radio show. In Happy Endings, Jim brings his raw, hilarious, and offensively honest comedy to Audible® listeners.

Paddle Your Own Canoe: One Man's Fundamentals for Delicious Living

Growing a perfect moustache, grilling red meat, wooing a woman - who better to deliver this tutelage than the always charming, always manly Nick Offerman, best known as Parks and Recreation's Ron Swanson? Combining his trademark comic voice and very real expertise in woodworking - he runs his own woodshop - Paddle Your Own Canoe features tales from Offerman's childhood in small-town Minooka, Illinois, to his theater days in Chicago, beginnings as a carpenter/actor and the hilarious and magnificent seduction of his now-wife Megan Mullally.

Life of the Party: Stories of a Perpetual Man-Child

A collection of outrageous stories by the stand-up comic, TV host, and inspiration for the movie National Lampoon's Van Wilder. Bert Kreischer doesn't know how to say "no". If he did, he wouldn't have gotten himself mixed up with a group of Russian mobsters on a class trip to Moscow, earning him his nickname "The Machine". He wouldn't have wrestled with a bear or swum with sharks on national television. He wouldn't have (possibly) smoked PCP with a star of Saturday Night Live.

I'm Not High

With his goofy smile, sleepy eyes, and stoner's laugh, Jim Breuer might not appear to be the most introspective comedian out there. The fact that Jim Breuer made his mark playing Goat Boy on Saturday Night Live and a recalcitrant toker in the stoner classic Half Baked doesn't help his reputation at all. But in I'm Not High, we meet a whole new Jim Breuer.

I Suck at Girls

Fans of the #1 bests eller Sh*t My Dad Says will recognize the always patient voice of Justin Halpern's dad as it crackles through this hysterical new audiobook. The story begins when Justin announces that he's decided to propose to his girlfriend. "You've been dating her for four years," his dad replies. "It ain't like you found a parallel fucking universe."

Intimacy Idiot

In this uproariously funny debut collection, award-winning writer and performer Isaac Oliver serves up a comedic cornucopia of sketches, vignettes, lists, and diaries from his life as a young, fanciful, and extremely single gay man in New York City. Whether he's hooking up with a man who dresses as a dolphin, suffering on airplanes and buses next to people with Food from Home, or hovering around an impenetrable circle of attractive people at a cocktail party, Oliver captures the messy, moving, and absurd moments of urban life as we live it today.

Dad Is Fat

In Dad is Fat, stand-up comedian Jim Gaffigan, who’s best known for his legendary riffs on Hot Pockets, bacon, manatees, and McDonald's, expresses all the joys and horrors of life with five young children - everything from cousins ("celebrities for little kids") to toddlers’ communication skills ("they always sound like they have traveled by horseback for hours to deliver important news"), to the eating habits of four-year-olds ("there is no difference between a four-year-old eating a taco and throwing a taco on the floor").

Sh-t My Dad Says

After being dumped by his longtime girlfriend, 28-year-old Justin Halpern found himself living at home with his 73-year-old dad. Sam Halpern, who is “like Socrates, but angrier, and with worse hair,” has never minced words, and when Justin moved back home, he began to record all the ridiculous things his dad said to him.

Publisher's Summary

In his second book, Adam Carolla - chart-topping podcaster and author of New York Times best seller In Fifty Years We'll All Be Chicks - reveals all the stories behind how he came to be the angry middle-aged man he is today.

Funnyman Adam Carolla is known for two things: hilarious rants about things that drive him crazy and personal stories about everything from his hardscrabble childhood to his slacker friends to the hypocrisy of Hollywood. He tackled rants in his first book, and now he tells his best stories and debuts some never-before-heard tales as well.

Organized by the myriad "dumps" Carolla called home as a child - through the flophouse apartments he rented in his 20s, up to the homes he personally renovated after achieving success in Hollywood - the anecdotes here follow Adam's journey and the hilarious pitfalls along the way.

Adam Carolla started broke and blue collar and has now been on the Hollywood scene for over 15 years. Yet he never lost his underdog demeanor. He's still connected to the working class guy he once was, and delivers a raw and edgy, fish-out-of-water take on the world in which he lives (but with which he mostly disagrees), telling all the stories, no matter who he offends - family, friends or the famous.

An autobiography of Adam's life told in stages, each stage defined by a house he lived in. This book was funny, and at times even smart, but the extent and quantity of the gross-out gags had an overpoweringly negative effect.

Carolla narrated this book himself which was fine, and it was mostly really good and original in its approach. He didn't read the book but rather told the stories off-the-cuff in a stand-up comedy style. What I found somewhat annoying here was that he would reference an image in the book and then tell everyone to go buy the print book if they wanted to see it. Also he edited the stories from the book and even left out an entire chapter.

Overall, I wish that I could have learned more about the Carolla from this book. Why are his friendships so enduring? What has his journey from shoe-box apartments to million dollar mansions taught him? Something more than just a bunch stories about guys peeing on one another (or worse - yes, worse).

Too much cussing at times and talking about "Poop" too much..Overall the book was ok at the beginning, but 3/4 thru It was more difficult to keep listening. He is funny, but it kind of gets old his cussing and his stories get a little boring..

Would you be willing to try another book from Adam Carolla? Why or why not?

Where does Not Taco Bell Material rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

While this is one of my favorite audio books, I never would have been a fan of the pre-Dr. Drew version of Adam Carolla. The wonderful influence of each man's spirit upon the other has tempered their more extreme personality traits, lending sophistication to Adam's surly outlook upon the world and a degree of good natured manly grit to Drew's ultra type A personality.

Adam is a great story teller and this book gave you a background of his life through the homes he lived in

Any additional comments?

Most of this material was the same as the last book so I was let down by that he talked about his football in both books. other than that it was a good book especially his crazy friend Ray I can't believe the mess he did back then. I'm also glad to know that he started from the bottom and worked his way up...

This book contains a collection of stories from Adams life. I liked how he used the places he was living as a timeline and a gauge of how well or bad he was doing at the time. If you are a long time listener (meaning you have listened for hundreds if not thousands of hours) to Adam you might of heard some of these stories before. But the great thing about the book is its all laid out for you in an easy to follow way.

So if you are an Adam Carolla Fan what are you waiting for, Let's keep this Pirate Ship a float!

Loved it???.. totally worth spending a credit, very fun to hear these stories told by the author. Each chapter is filled with fun and impressive stories backed up with thoughtful life lessons. This book should be considered therapy for both Carolla and the reader. I kind of hate his mom after hearing some of the crappy things she put him through.

It gives the reader the knowledge as to why Adam Carolla is who he is today.

Which scene was your favorite?

His childhood

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

Yes! Adam delivers as always

Any additional comments?

I was saddened to find out that Adam choose to exclude certain chapters/stories of the book. Constantly reminding the reader that if they wanted to find out, to buy the book by claiming that he was pushing the 8 hour mark; when there are books that are well over the 20 hour mark!

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